Brett Pollakoff

Jeff Ayres (formerly Jeff Pendergraph) played for the Indiana Pacers last season, a team that took the eventual champion Heat to seven games during the Eastern Conference Finals. In the final game of the series, with the score out of hand and the contest having already been decided, Ayres got into a shoving match with…

The plan all along was for Deron Williams to miss the majority of the preseason for the Nets after suffering a sprained ankle, but to be ready to go by the time the regular season begins on October 30. But Williams has been slow to recover, and after dealing with ankle issues that limited him…

The Knicks may, at some point this season, get to the point where they’re playing at the same level or better than the team was last year when it finished with the second best record in the Eastern Conference. But the lack of frontcourt depth is likely to cause some trouble, at least in the…

Tony Parker left the Spurs’ preseason game against the Heat on Saturday after hitting his finger on the camera of a photographer seated along the baseline. There was no serious injury sustained, but it gave Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich yet another opportunity to publicly speak out against various arena personnel being stationed so close…

LeBron James may have sat out of Saturday’s preseason game against the Spurs, but Dwyane Wade did more than enough to make sure his team came away with the win. The Spurs may not have been all that motivated against a LeBron-less Heat team in a meaningless contest, but Wade had plenty of incentive to…

The last time the Heat and the Spurs played in Miami, it was Game 7 of the NBA Finals last June, in a contest that meant the world to each respective franchise. When they met again for the first time since then in a preseason contest in Miami on Saturday, the game meant absolutely nothing.…

This must be what coaches mean when listing a player’s status as “day-to-day.” On Friday, Amar’e Stoudemire had not yet been cleared for contact. On Saturday, he was cleared, and practiced with the Knicks in half-court situations. From Ian Begley of ESPN New York: Stoudemire was cleared for contact and participated in half-court drills Saturday.…

Kirk Hinrich is out for at least a few days after suffering a concussion during the Bulls’ preseason win over the Pacers on Friday. From Nick Friedell of ESPN Chicago: “He’s out. He has a concussion,” Thibodeau said after Saturday’s practice. “Not sure (how long he’ll be out). Probably a couple days.” Thibodeau acknowledged that…

It’s going to be a long season in Philadelphia. When factoring in injuries, the roster features one of the worst overall collections of NBA talent that we’ve seen in quite some time; it could be argued fairly easily that an expansion team would have better luck putting together a squad capable of winning more games…

The Nets face the Celtics in Boston on Wednesday in what is one of two remaining preseason games on the team’s schedule. But Jason Kidd won’t be using it to get a look at some of his better lineups in action a week before the regular season begins, because two of his starters will be…

Kobe Bryant changed the avatar on his Twitter account Friday to “1225,” and while we could speculate on whether or not that means he’s targeting a return date of Christmas Day against the Miami Heat from his torn Achilles injury, the reality is it was likely done as a personal motivational tactic. ESPN ranked all of…

As we’ve discussed before in the recent case of the budding rivalry between the Nets and the Knicks, whether or not a rivalry exists is often times in the eye of the beholder. Where one team may view another as a rival, that team may not exactly see things the same way. A rivalry would…

The Nets hired Jason Kidd as a rookie head coach this summer, less than 10 days after his retirement from a Hall of Fame career that lasted 19 seasons. Brooklyn’s front office wasn’t exactly camped out on Kidd’s doorstep, however, waiting to pounce once he technically became available. No, it was Kidd who reached out…

When a team that won 60 games a season ago is returning the bulk of its core players, a rookie big man selected in the draft is usually going to be slated for development duty rather than be pressed into immediate action as part of the regular rotation. While that’s likely to be true for…

When you see footage like this of one of the game’s best players picking up a ball and swishing a half-court shot without even thinking about it, it’s a nice reminder of just how ridiculously skilled these guys are at their chosen craft. Chris Paul became the latest to get caught on video showcasing his…

NBA legend Bill Russell was arrested on Friday after bringing a handgun into a prohibited area at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The details, from KIRO in Seattle: Russell, who won 11 NBA championships with the Boston Celtics and coached the Seattle Supersonics and Sacramento Kings, had a permit for the gun and was released. His background…

The Clippers are in the odd and historically unfortunate situation of sharing an arena with the storied Los Angeles Lakers franchise. It makes for an awkward game night when the Clippers are the home team, considering one of the walls of the arena is covered with large banners representing all of the Lakers’ 16 NBA…

When the Jazz let both Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap walk in free agency without getting anything in return, that was a sign that they were ready to turn the franchise over to their young players. The large contract extension just offered and agreed to by Derrick Favors is the team putting its money where…

Last season: Believe it or not, the Suns actually had playoff aspirations when the regular season began. The front office believed that Michael Beasley would be different in Phoenix than he had been anywhere else, and mandated that he be given a chance to be a difference-maker in the lineup. Once it became clear that…

In case you were wondering if the Nets, now with Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett in the fold, would be taking on any portion of the Celtics’ past rivalry with the Miami Heat, we saw in Thursday’s preseason game in Brooklyn that the answer was a resounding “yes.” In addition to the Nets making sure…

Iman Shumpert has done this before. In Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semi-finals versus the Pacers last season, Shumpert flew down the lane and followed a miss with a vicious put-back slam dunk. Flash forward to preseason Thursday night against the Wizards, and Shumpert was at it again — although this time he finished…

The Nets hosted the Miami Heat for a preseason game in Brooklyn on Thursday, but the only truly meaningful moment of the night came before the game even started. Jason Kidd, currently in his first year as head coach with the Nets, played more than six of his 19 NBA seasons in New Jersey, and…

Last season: Another mired below mediocre for a Kings team that has been just awful for the past seven years. Sacramento finished with just 28 wins, good for 13th out of 15 teams in the West. The team was 29th out of 30 in defensive efficiency (only the Bobcats were worse), DeMarcus Cousins remained out…

The vast majority of days that I work in arenas covering live events, I am not subjected to filing a game story on deadline. It’s by far the worst part of the industry, and it’s what many of the best writers covering the NBA face on a daily basis out of necessity as part of…

Derrick Rose played his first game in front of his hometown fans at the United Center since April of 2012 on Wednesday, getting the nod in the starting lineup in a preseason matchup with the Pistons. Rose got going early, and scored eight of his team’s first 13 points. But this play in the second…